Archduke
Ed Nelson
Cast in Time
Book 8: Archduke
By Ed Nelson
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my wife, Carol, for her support and help as my first reader and editor.
And never forget the professional editor, Janet E. Rupert
Quotation
"According to 'M' theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, 'M' theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing."
Stephen Hawking
Other books by Ed Nelson
Book 1: The Beginning
Book 2: Schooldays
Book 3: Hollywood
Book 4: In the Movies
Book 5: Star to Deckhand
Book 6: Surfing Dude
Book 7: Third Time is a Charm
Book 8: Oxford University
Book 9: Cold War
Book 10: Taking Care of Business
Book 11: Interesting Times
Book 12: Escape from Siberia
Book 13: Regicide
Book 14: What's Under, Down Under?
Book 15: The Lunar Kingdom
Book 16: First Steps
In the Richard Jackson World
Mary, Mary
More Mary, Mary
Stand Alone Story
Ever and Always
The Cast in Time series
Book 1: Baron
Book 2: Baron of the Middle Counties
Book 3: Count
Book 4: Earl
Book 5: Earl of the Marches
Book 6: Duke
Book 7: Duke of the West
Copyright © 2025
E. E. Nelson All rights reserved
Eastern Shore Publishing
671 25th St SW
Largo, Fl 33770
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is coincidental.
ISBN 979-8-89434-042-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 20239124
Table of Contents
Contents
Cast in Time
Dedication
Quotation
Other books by Ed Nelson
Copyright © 2025
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter13
Chapter14
Chapter15
Chapter16
Chapter17
Chapter18
Chapter19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Backmatter
Chapter 1
Just because the Duke of Poland spoke for all his nobles didn’t mean that things were all settled. There was the minor matter that we had a judiciary. Poland didn’t. Each noble was judge, jury, and executioner in their own domain. Some of the nobles didn’t know what they were getting into when they agreed to join my Archdukedom. The Duke was able to counsel most of them into accepting the fact that they wouldn’t be the final arbitrator of law in their land. From what I heard the counseling got very loud.
The new Duke wasn’t particularly pleased about having a provincial court that reported to my supreme court. He realized it was part of the price he would have to pay to be part of the Owen-nap Archdukedom. I hated that title, it was so unwieldy. Since it was the only way to make things work out I had to live with it.
Then there was the little matter that each of my new nobles in Poland had slightly different laws in their areas. They had to come into alignment with my laws and be consistent within the providence. The duke called a convention of his nobles to work out the changes that needed to be put in place. I sent my chief justice to oversee the process. I avoided the whole session by taking Eleanor, Cathy, Andrew, and the twins to Florida to visit Doug, Bethany, and Sally.
The official purpose of the trip was to check up on how the space program was progressing. The real purpose was to get away from the Poles. They were passionate in their defense of how they always had done things. The problem was they all did it differently.
There was one law that I stated would be revised. There would be no serfs bound to the land. That was just a different way of saying slavery. Nobles at the convention wanted to know how they could work their lands if the peasants could leave anytime they wanted to. My chief justice told them all they had to do was treat their people decently. That was a revolutionary idea. They wanted to know what decently meant. He then told them the people would tell them. They would vote with their feet.
I was happy to be in Florida. Doug had come up with a neat idea to generate support for his space flights. The flags of all the providences were painted around the circumference of each rocket. When a newsreel was made the flag of the providence that reel was going to was displayed prominently. Of course my flag was above all of them with several copies, so it was always in the picture.
With winter coming on we wouldn’t get much construction of the railways into and through Poland. We were able to stockpile all the track, ballast, and ties along the way. The surveyor’s job was easy as the Duke of Poland had laid out his roads with railroads in mind. By stockpiling the materials at major intersections construction would proceed at pace.
At a staff meeting we started talking about conquering the rest of eastern Europe. This included the budding Kievan Rus, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Albania. These weren’t the current names in use but what I thought of them as.
I was an engineer not into social science or political divisions. That said I was completely surprised when the discussion of the Baltic states, namely Estonia, Lithuania, Latavis, and the Ukraine started.
I opened the discussion with the statement, “Our motorized divisions should have no problems in the steppes of those countries.”
Several of my generals shifted uncomfortable in their seats. Finally my Chief of Staff spoke up.
“Sir, these aren’t open plains we are talking about. The Carpathian Mountains dominate most of the area.”
I was taken aback.
“Oh.”
“I continued, “As you know I’m an engineer by background not a political science person who would know the landscape.”
I had never explained where I had obtained my education, and they didn’t ask anymore after being rebuffed every time.
“As I just demonstrated, I don’t have a great understanding of the geography of this part of the world.”
I didn’t explain that I knew North America being raised there, or Europe by fighting through it and the same for the most of Asia.
“From now on lets proceed as though I know little about new areas we will be going into. This will be especially true of India and China. Before any meetings of this nature in the future please arrange an intelligence briefing on the nature of the area we are going into.”
They took this well, but you could see that some of them were still uncomfortable. I had been the font of all knowledge to them. Now their God was admitting to feet of clay. This was better than a poorly planned campaign.
We took a long lunch break where we continued discussions in a less formal manner.
After lunch at my request we adjourned the meeting until I could be brought up to speed on the geography, culture, and economy of the area. We left the meeting room a frazzled bunch. Me because I had made some unwarranted assumptions and my staff because they couldn’t take my knowledge for granted anymore.
The CIA took a week to assemble the materials they thought I would need. At that briefing I learned that the areas in question ranged from mountains to small plains, except for the area around what I knew as Crimea. In Crimea were vast wheat fields which were feeding people as far south as Constantinople.
Since we now held the city they were feeding my people. Now that I knew that it made sense as the mountainous regions of Turkey couldn’t do the job.
I asked about trade agreements supporting this. I was informed that both parties had reneged on deals so many times that besides being trading partners they were in a state of war on any given day.
As far as the inhabitants they were a mixture of Nordic people from the north and Slav’s from the south. The Nordic people were mostly Varangians while the Slav’s were of Albanian stock. Shades of Dracula!
The culture was the paganism of the north and the newly introduced Christian religion. There was a mixture of holidays and traditions which forecast my future. The Norse contributed the Yule festival, which grew from a three-day celebration to the twelve days of Christmas
The Norse celebrated the return of the sun by the creation of a sun wheel, made by intertwining branches of evergreens and decorated with runes depicting the Norse gods. The sun wheel became the modern Christmas wreath.
Those were the Norse traditions that crept into Christianity. The paganism of the Norse didn’t absorb Christian traditions as it mostly died out.
I was told by the intelligence people that furs, beeswax, and honey along with wheat and other crops were the major exports from the Balkan states. The sale of slaves was also included in their economy but that would end when we invaded.
The CIA people also had pictures they had bought, I suppose they bought them. They showed soldiers in chain mail carrying what would have been modern weapons at the time. We had certainly changed that paradigm.
The briefing I received was thorough and they thought complete. While I didn’t know the geography of the area before I had done some research. While not having complete maps of the modern Baltic States I was able to identify resources that hadn’t been needed yet or found.
While there was some mining going on the residents had no idea of how rich their iron ore reserves were. They also had one of the richest areas of manganese-bearing ores in the world. Bituminous and anthracite coal used for coke was to be found in plenty..
Specifically Ukraine also has important deposits of titanium ore, bauxite, nepheline (a source of soda), alunite (a source of potash), and mercury ores. An oddity is a large deposit of ozokerite (a natural paraffin wax). There are potassium salt deposits and rock salt. There are some phosphorites as well as some natural gas and petroleum to be found plus natural sulfur.
Estonia has oil shale, sea mud, construction sand, lake mud, and construction gravel.
Latavia houses clay, limestone, gypsum, dolomite, peat, and other construction material. Forest and fisheries are in abundance.
Lithuania has large reserves of dolomite, clay, gypsum sand, quartz sand, and limestone. These minerals make a significant contribution to the construction industry by producing excellent quality ceramics, cement, and glass.
Other mineral resources found in Lithuania are iron ore, phosphorites, sulfates, etc. Amber is a natural resource found at the Baltic Sea shores. Rivers such as the Neman River can produce hydroelectricity. Like the other Baltic states forests, lakes for fish and agriculture are to be found.
After the CIA briefing I had a serious conversation with Eleanor.
“Dear I’m not getting any younger and it is starting to show.”
“In what way?”
“At one point in my life I could access the stored information in my mind quickly and read it as though I only had to scan. Now it takes longer to retrieve the information I’m looking for and then longer to assimilate it. Some of that is due to my having more life experience to go through to find what I need.”
“That is to be expected dear.”
“I know but it is starting to show to other people. It makes me look weaker. The weaker I look the more chance there is of a revolution. We have done wonderful things for the world, and I would hate for us to lose all of it.”
“I think you worry to much. You might consider slowing things down by taking more time to think things through before giving orders or rendering a decision.”
Eleanor continued, “Also there is a difference in how you handle scientific development versus military campaigns.”
I had to think that one through.
“Oh, you mean that I give an overview to a newly formed science team of what needs to be developed and provide them with the knowledge I have from the future. This is enough to get them started. After that it is up to them to make it happen while providing me with periodic updates or asking me to consult on a particular problem they have encountered.”
“Exactly, on the other hand with the military you are involved every step of the way. You have created a dependent officer corp. They need to be given a mission, then plan it and present it to you for your final thoughts. This will strengthen your army and ease things up on you, old man.”
“Old man!”
I then proceeded to demonstrate that the saying; their may be snow on the roof but there is fire in the furnace.
The next day after an excellent night with little sleep I decided on how I would handle things in the future with my military.
As each campaign to conquer the world came up I would start with the CIA briefing me on local conditions. That would be the basis of my mission statement to the armed forces.
The general staff would then develop a plan to achieve the objectives in the mission statement. Once that was presented to me I would take time to do my own research and approve the plan or request changes based on my specific knowledge.
The only concern I had was that the CIA might misjudge things because of internal biases or worse treasonous plans.
That concern led me to creating an internal investigation division within the CIA. They would watch for any unusual activity such as excessive spending or family members disappearing to put pressure on agents.
Within the military there would also be planning groups developing plans to fight all our enemies. These groups would be separate from my assigned groups for a specific mission or major campaign. There probably be cross over of personal but they would be separate groups. If the groups diverged too much it would signal me getting more involved.
Chapter 2
As he was helping me put on my jacket, Latham, my latest valet mentioned that I had put attending Cornel Butlers logistics meeting on my calendar.
Now that seemed odd. I didn’t even know such a meeting was being held. Why would Latham bring it up? I asked him as he brushed some imaginary lint of my shoulder. I hoped it was imaginary lint and not dandruff.
“I heard that it will be a very interesting meeting on stockpiling materials in Poland for the Rus invasion.”
One thing I had learned over the years was when your valet brought something up you had better listen. A good valet not only saw to your clothing needs but was a conduit of information. The social status of my valet was such that he had entrée to all levels of society. In this case both commissioned officer’s and NCOs clubs. I knew he made regular rounds of these and other meeting places to make himself available as a backchannel to me.
“Do you happen to know where this meeting it to take place?”
“It is at ten o’clock at army headquarters, in the Robins conference room.”
“Do I have anything scheduled at that time?”
One of the two aides waiting at my leisure spoke up, “No sir, the meeting that you were going to attend has been moved to a future date. Apparently they weren’t as ready as they thought to give an update on the helicopter program.”
That was no surprise the development of a helicopter equivalent to the Huey’s we used in Veit Nam had been plagued with problems from day one. I was considering replacing that team. This was one more nail in the coffin.
“I will take a look in the logistics meeting as I have the time. No aide to accompany me.”
Now I was very curious as to what was going on so important that I was getting an request outside of the chain of command to attend this meeting. It had better be a good reason or there would be hell to pay. Lathan knew this and had never abused his privilege.
Lathan finally decided that my daily working uniform was in a good enough condition for me to go to work. I didn’t wear any medals with this uniform. On formal occasions I wore the campaign medals that I had earned in this time period. I also had worked with an artist to draw up my uptime medals and have them reproduced. I only wore these on the most formal of occasions. I know they puzzled people, but I had earned them the hard way. Mine were for combat not good behavior. I never understood the awarding of good conduct medals to soldiers. We were taught to have the worse conduct possible on the battlefield. I didn’t bother with rank insignia on a daily basis, if someone didn’t know I was the boss, shame on them.
At five minutes to ten I entered the meeting room with a dozen other officers. I had arrived ten minutes before the meeting to be certain that I was on time. The other officers ranging from light colonels to captains standing with me kept glancing at me, but they didn’t approach me.
When we filed into the room I took a seat in the back row near the door and the coffee pot. I was a veteran of this type of meeting. The room was set up in briefing style rather than a planning session where the participants would sit at a table. This setup was used when marching orders were given. I thought Lathan had told me it was a planning meeting.
After waiting ten minutes we were called to attention. This bothered me, the colonel running the meeting was late and his staff hadn’t notified him that I was in the room. He and I would be having a serious conversation later, but I wanted to see what else might arise. I was beginning to get a hint as to why I was there.
I stood with the others. He proceeded to lecture us on how much effort he had put into this plan. Now that was downright strange. These people were his staff, and they were to have developed the plan and presented it to them. He droned on for a good ten minutes telling us how great he was and that he would probably get his first generals star for his efforts.
Little did he know.
After almost putting us to sleep he had a slide projector turned on. The slides were his plan to position materials into Poland for the Keivan Rus invasion in the spring. It was bad enough that he had the lights down low after almost putting us to sleep, he then compounded his error by reading the slide word for word. No explanation, just reading and then going to the next slide.
I almost walked out when I realized not only was he using a slide carousel holding one hundred slides, but there were also two more fully loaded carousels waiting for him to read.
I got up to get some coffee to keep me awake. I was told to sit down and there would be a coffee break in an hour, and did I have no respect for a senior officer.
I mumbled, “Sorry,” and sat back down.
It was going to be brutal later. I wanted to see how far this clown would go.
There was a minor stir among those officers who had realized who I was. I shook my head at them to keep it quiet.
His logistics plan wasn’t a disaster as I thought it would be. If I was grading him it would rate a C minus.
He finally wound down and the lights were turned back up.
He asked, “Any questions?”
A young captain raised his hand.
“Sir what are the plans to control traffic through Poland. All the highways are in good condition, but they are single lane. The railroad being built is only a single track to the north. Once unloaded the trains will have to return south and there will be other trains heading north. Are sidings being built and who will control the traffic.”
The Colonel got red in the face, “Captain you have too little experience to question your seniors. Now, sit down and listen.
That was it for me.
“Colonel I think that is a very good question what are your plans.”
The colonel had to lean forward to see me in the back of the room. He must have bad eyesight.
“I don’t recognize you and you aren’t wearing rank insignia, get out of my meeting.”
“Let me introduce myself. I am General of the Armies James Foster, Archduke of Owen-nap. If I bothered I would have five stars on my shoulders. Now please answer this captain’s excellent question.”
You could see the colonel flush then go pale. I thought he was having a heart attack.
He stuttered and stammered for a minute then turned and walked off the stage leaving by a side door.
His aide was about to follow him when I ordered him to stay. One thing about getting older, my command voice was stronger than ever.
“Major, can you answer the captains question?”
“No your Grace because it hasn’t been considered.”
“Thank you, could you do a quick scout around and see if there are any rooms set up for a planning meeting.”
He left like his pants were on fire.
“Everyone take a break until the major gets back. I couldn’t resist it, smoke if you gotten. I hadn’t said that since World War II as a platoon leader.
I had a cup of coffee while we were waiting on the major to return. It didn’t dawn on me until after he left, he may have headed out the front gate and kept going. Nah, that was probably the colonel.
The major did return in a few minutes. He was accompanied by a sergeant and two privates. They moved the coffee pot to the new room. I liked the way the aide hadn’t tried to waffle when asked the direct question and his thinking of coffee.
When the planning staff were settled in the new room I gave them their mission.
“The colonel had about half a plan. Review it, poke holes in it, then fix what is wrong or missing. I will be back at four thirty for a half hour briefing on your progress.”
I looked at the young captain.
“Major you are to give the briefing.”
I had to smile when he realized he had just got promoted. He didn’t understand that I had just thrown him from the frying pan into the fire. He had asked a good question, now to see if he good back it up. If not there was always a desk that needed riding.
I beckoned the aide to follow me. When out in the hall I asked him the captain’s, now major’s name, Jack Carlson. I wrote it down in the notebook I always carried with me.
“Did the colonel report to General Neice?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“What is your name?”
“Olaf Olafson.”
“I thought you looked like a Viking. Good job today.”
I left him to the planning meeting and went to General Neice’s office. Tom was a good man, and I couldn’t understand how he let that clown of a colonel be in the position.
Tom was in his spartan office making marks on a large map of Poland pinned to a wall. He didn’t hear me come in so I watched him for a minute.
I figured out that he was finding potential spots for railroad sidings. Interesting.
“Tom how are you?”
I startled him as he had been deep in thought. He turned quickly and his stern face broke into his bright smile.
“James, so nice to see you, what brings you to my neck of the woods?”
“I see you are working on the problem that I came here for.”
The smile left his face.
“I was hoping to get rid of the Colonel before you found him.”
“Too late for that I’m afraid. How on earth did he end up in your command?”
“I lost the toss. He comes from a good family and was promoted far beyond his capabilities. He was in the 14th motorized division. They had it with him and kicked him out.”
“Again how did he end up here?”
“Secretary McGinnis had to find a home for him. He is a bit of a hot potato as his father is an Earl. They originally were going to kick him out, but the Earl brought pressure on the Secretary’s office. I owed the Secretary a favor so here we are. In the last several days I have learned how incompetent he is. I have been trying to do my job and his while trying to figure out what to do with him.”
“He is now my problem. You need to find a new leader for your invasion planning staff. I would suggest taking a look at Lieutenant Colonel Olaf Olafson.”
“He is on my short list, since you recommend him I will promote him to full Colonel and give him the job.”
“By the way I promoted a captain by the name of Jack Carlson to major. He asked if the problem you are addressing had been considered.”
“Jim I will take care of the paperwork mess you always leave behind. In the meantime I will call him in here and dump this railroad mess in his lap. A good trial by fire for him.”
From there Tom and I updated each other on our families. I suppose if he read the papers or watched TV or listened to the radio he knew all about mine.
His wife Jenny was a friend of Eleanors so I’m certain that Eleanor had all the information given. One thing that she probably didn’t know was that Jerry the son of Tom and Sandy Neice had been selected for early promotion by the officer selection board.
While we were reminiscing an orderly knocked on Tom’s door.
“Sir, Colonel Butler has killed himself in his quarters.”
These things have a way of sorting themselves out.
Chapter 3
Tom and I talked about Colonel Butlers suicide. While his errors were career ending they weren’t life ending, at least with our current knowledge. I made a note to have the late colonel’s background investigated. If it ended up being a personal issue that was one thing, if it effected the army it was another.
Tom was to instigate the investigation and provide a follow up. Once more I wrote the information down in my notebook. When full the notebook would go into my private library. It probably would be cited in future PhD theses. I pitied anyone who had to decipher my handwriting.
As it was close to four thirty we returned to the planning room to listen to the new major’s presentation. The room had been left a mess by the last people who had used it. In the meantime light colonel Olafson had it cleaned up and put in order. I wonder how much time had been spent on housekeeping versus planning.
When a staff sergeant stuck his head in the door to ask if things were put together now it was plain to see that Olafson had his ducks in a row.
All the officers present had managed to make themselves more presentable. That is they straightened their ties and tucked their shirts in properly. The change in appearance spoke worlds of their regard for the late colonel.
Jack Carlson was ready for his presentation. He looked as cool as a cucumber. Not a trace of sweat on his brow. It was only when he half turned to pick up a paper that you could see his back was soaking wet.
“Proceed,” I stated.
Carlson then gave his presentation extemporaneously. No reading from slides. He just told us what their discussions had covered.
Two things stuck out to me. The obivious one was the railroad issue with the need for sidings and traffic control signals. In this case they were going with radio messages to tower control blocks to change the lights shown to oncoming traffic. There would also be switchmen in place to throw the switches and use lanterns as a backup to the signal lights. One burned-out light on a signal block could cause a disaster.
The second item brought up was the need for warming stations. We planned to be in Ukraine by early March. The temperatures could be below freezing at night and only in the forties during the day. Forties during the day didn’t sound bad until you were outside all day long.
While not as bad as the Korean winter I had lived through it was still a good idea. Warming your troops and providing them a hot meal was never a bad idea.
They even had planned for space heaters in the back of the trucks which would be moving the bulk of our troops.
When the major had finished he looked at me to see if I had approved of his presentation and the work they had done.
“Excellent presentation major, and good work on leading the planning session Colonel Olafson.”
It was common practice to call a lieutenant colonel, colonel so it left Olafson wondering if he had a promotion. Tom put him out of his misery by announcing that Lieutenant Colonel Olafson was now Colonel Olafson and in charge of logistics planning for the Kievan Rus invasion.
Tom continued, “You will hear soon enough but Colonel Butler has committed suicide in his quarters.”
What had started as applause for Olaf’s promotion quickly died out. No one had liked the late Colonel but didn’t wish his fate on anyone.
When I returned to my rooms in the Owen-nap castle Latham was waiting for me. As usual the news had already reached him. As he helped me out of my Eisenhower type jacket he told me, “The investigators might want to check into his gambling habits and the fact that he owed a large sum of money to a Chinese merchant.”
I told one of my aides who had returned to my side that he was to follow up on the investigation that Tom was commissioning and to make certain they looked into his association with the Chinese merchant.
If played right this merchant could be a good source of misinformation back to the China.
We had to build stockpiles in Poland for our incursion into the Balkan States. This was not a simple matter of hauling material to the borders and letting it set until it was needed. That was a surefire way to have it all disappear.
First sites had to be selected. We needed at least three of them as we were looking at a three-prong attack going up the sides and middle of the four countries, Old Prussia, Lithuania, Livia, and Estonia. We would then turn into the Ukraine. The reason for the three prongs was for speed.
We had to conquer these countries as quickly as possible if we were to take Moscow before General Winter came into play.
Each of the three sites would be rented from the landholder. We had just got Poland on our side I didn’t want to alienate them, at least this soon.
Once the sites were ours. We would construct proper storage for the different types of supplies. Then there would have to be housing for the store-men and guards needed.
The roads to these sites had to be improved to handle the traffic burden we were about to impose. The roads were secondary or even tertiary to the main roads of Poland as they now existed.
Then there was the need to move the actual troops that would be involved in the invasion. Poland was too long for a truck to go from the southern border to the northern border in a day, so we needed stopping points along the way.
These points involved refueling facilities for both vehicles and men. Tents would be set up for overnight stays. We would have to provide a sewage setup so the fields would not be a mess when we left. Showers would be erected as it would be good for morale.
When in the field you never knew when the next chance to get clean would be.
We had one minor problem as we started to move material to the new sites. A Baron got it into his head that he could charge access fees to pass through his territory.
The first time it happened they had men standing as a barricade across the road. When our column stopped they asked for our commander. When he came up they demanded on silver per man and truck to pass. The commander told his people to mount up and the column started to move again. Now it takes a braver man than I to stand in front of a military column and stop it with my body. The baron’s soldiers weren’t dumb. They stepped aside.
The second time they came to this baron’s border he had erected barriers across the road with sandbags and a pole to let vehicles through. This time my people didn’t even stop. The lead truck had a reinforced bumper and plowed right through the barricade.
You would think the baron might realize that the road we were on wasn’t his, it was a Polish national road which the Duke of Poland had given us permission to use. We had to sign an agreement to repair the road if our heavy equipment tore it up. We had planned that anyway, so it wasn’t an issue.
The third time through the baron had built a concrete wall with steel bars blocking the roadway. By this time the issue had been elevated to me. I told the Duke of Poland what was going to happen next. He agreed, this baron was becoming a real pain in the neck.
At this fortified point our trucks stopped. Two low rider tactor trailers pulled up to the front. They were each hauling a tank. The tanks were dismounted and trundled up to the concrete wall and steel gate.
Over a loudspeaker it was announced the tanks would be firing in one minute. Please clear the area. The area was cleared in about fifteen seconds.
At the end of one minute the tanks fired. Two rounds each and there was nothing but rubble strewn on the now open road.
The Baron had a small castle on top of a hill overlooking the road. The tanks turrets turned to face his castle. The tanks tubes were elevated and one shot from each knocked down his castle walls. That was the last time he tried to charge a toll.
By this time winter had come with snows blocking most of the roads. We had snowplows keeping the roads to the invasion staging areas clear. Even so the movement of material was slowed down. Not so much that it would interfere with our plans, but it made everything more difficult.
While all this has been happening we are spying out the Rus lands. Our agents were mapping the roads and their conditions. They were also noting any fortifications along the way to our objectives that would have to be taken out. My men must have spent as much time in taverns learning the size of any local military as they did on the road. Not a bad job.
They would buy rounds for the locals and listen. They were interested in knowing the local leaders, mayors or baron’s abilities. Where possible if they were good governors we would leave them in place.
The men sent out to do the spying were all CIA operatives. While they were listening they were also identifying men that they could recruit to provide local information continuously. Men were being recruited in the taverns, only because women weren’t allowed.
Some female agents were recruited in all place, the churches. Our operatives stayed in an area several weeks and tried to fit in. This included attending church. Listening before and after church likely women were identified, and if appropriated recruited.
In the long run the women proved more loyal and useful then any of the men selected. In every town or village at least two people were brought on, as a double check on each other. They didn’t know about the other.
This took all winter to get a barebones network in place, but it proved invaluable after the invasion. They were able to identify problem people and areas in advance of them taking actions. We didn’t have the local people do any wet work, that was left to our professionals.
While all these war efforts were underway life went on as usual. One important milestone was in the health care community. A team of doctors in London performed the first successful kidney transplant. Their had been many transplants previously, namely skin grafting which had been going on for thousands of years all over the world.
While I hadn’t read any books specifically on major organ replacement I had read enough that researchers were able to get clues of what needed to be done to successfully transplant an organ.
We had already conquered two of the issues. Without an aseptic operating area infection would set in and kill the patient. Next was anesthesia so the patient wouldn’t die of shock from the pain that would be created by cutting into the body.
The researchers knew from the books that I had dictated that there were different blood types. I was able to describe positive and negative types and the different Rh factors. Not the specifics but the factor names. That was enough of a hint that they were able to come up with methods of testing blood types. It only took ten years.
The last step in the journey was to develop immune system suppressive drugs. That took fifteen years. Both the Rh and immune system studies were going on simultaneously, so it took fifteen years before they were ready to go.
They doctors selected the kidney as the first organ because we had two of them but could live with one. They went with a volunteer family member to start with but understood if harvested quickly those from recently deceased could be used.
Chapter 4
It was thrilling to have our medical world reach this milestone. We were almost current with my world. The event reminded me of something else. The Nobel prize. I had been giving out titles for extra efforts.
There needed to be a prize that was greater than the normal ones. Eleanor and I discussed this, I explained what the Nobel prize was all about and the fact it wasn’t even given every year in every category.
We decided the title of Duke with limited lands and a million silver would be the prize. There would be no Nobel Peace prize. What I was doing was anything but peaceful.
There would be a mathematics prize instead of the Fields Medal. It would follow the Nobel requirements instead of those of the original Fields Medal. I saw no sense in having different awards at the top level. Besides I think those earning the prize would like my reward better than the fifteen thousand dollars Canadian presented in the uptime version.
While we had assigned one of our teams, always a team, to flesh out the requirements for the Owen-nap prize other events were underway.
A road connecting north and south America was being surveyed. Eventually there would be railroad right of way to promote trade. The biggest obstacle was called the Darién Gap.
This gap in a road connecting the PanAmerican highway in my time starts at the southern Panama's Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department. Consisting of a large drainage basin, dense rainforest, and mountains, it is remote, has difficult terrain, and in an extreme environment due to the many microclimates caused by the different types of terrain.
The geography of the Darién Gap is highly diverse. The Colombian side is dominated primarily by the river delta of the Atrato River, which creates a flat marshland at least 50 miles wide. The Serranía del Baudó mountain range extends along Colombia's Pacific coast and into Panama. The Panamanian side, in stark contrast, is a mountainous rainforest, with terrain reaching from 200 feet in the valley floors to over 6,000 feet at the tallest peak.
Now and even in my uptime travel within and across Darién Gap is conducted with small boats or traditional watercraft such as pirogues. Other than that hiking is the only remaining option, and it is strenuous and dangerous. Aside from natural threats such as deadly wildlife, tropical diseases, and frequent heavy rains and flash floods there were bandits.
A few insane motorcyclist survive the trip on heavy duty dirt bikes. While this could get an individual across the gap it wouldn’t be conducive to trade.
In my time the gap had several attempts to pave a road across it, but they were abandoned when it was determined that the gap was the only effective deterrent to the spread of hoof-and-mouth disease from south America to north America.
While vaccines had been developed the virus had so many variations that no one vaccine worked for all. While our scientists were working on it there had yet to be a breakthrough.
So far isolation was the only way to prevent the disease from spreading. When an outbreak occurs, the virus must be analyzed before the correct vaccine can be identified. The cost of administering the vaccines is such that frequently it is easier to destroy all four hoofed animals in a ten-mile radius.
This can be devastating to those ranchers in the infection control zone.
The only safe way to bring meat out of south America is slaughtering, butchering, and then freezing the meat. That meant everything came out by ship. No live animals would be accepted for shipment.
When the road through the gap is completed there will have to be inspection stations at each end. No live animals or meat products would be allowed to be transported along the new highway. Vehicles going from south to north would have to be sprayed with disinfectants.
Since bribery and other forms of corruption were still prevalent in the area we would have to rotate inspectors frequently and have surprise inspections stations set up along the highway. Since the highway would be the only way to cross the gap we thought it would be enough.
Only time would tell if these controls were effective. Since it was estimated to take ten years to build the one hundred- and fifty-mile-long highway this wouldn’t be soon.
The length of the highway told the story; the gap itself was only sixty miles wide. There was no straight route through the gap. It would also take twenty-five tunnels over one mile long and seventy-five bridges.
Before actual construction was to start there was one last step to be taken. The survey work had been lowkey, so few people knew what was being planned. My policy was no surprises to the general population. So the entire construction plan and objectives were published for public comment.
There were a lot of comments, everything from don’t mess with mother nature to our hoof-and-mouth disease control plan wouldn’t work.
Only one of the comments we received made me think again. The basic question was how we would protect the bison herds. In my time there were no herds like there were today. Millions of the animals roamed now the west. They were still the life blood of several Indian tribes.
After much agonizing and group discussions I realized we couldn’t guarantee the safety of the herds. Commitments had been made not to destroy the tribe’s way of life. I made the decision that until we had a fail-safe vaccine there wouldn’t be a route through the Darién Gap.
My decision was distributed worldwide. I might as well get good publicity out of the situation.
Not starting the construction of this billion-silver project created another problem. We had budgeted for this major project; the money was reserved. If we didn’t spend the money on a similar project the politicians would want it for their boondoggles which would end up creating inflation.
I hate to admit it, but I had allowed the Dukedom’s to develop elected officials. I later would plead temporary insanity. They couldn’t take directly from the Federal budget. That money was under my control.
What they could do was not send their taxes to Owen-nap as the Federal government didn’t need it. They would then spend it as they saw fit. See fit is another term or enriching themselves, their families and friends plus buying votes.
There were two major projects that could take the Gaps place. A Trans-African railway and roads. There would be roads and tracks down each coast and the middle. This project would be many times the size of the Darién Gap project and more than ten times the cost.
This would soak up the money in the budget and take future year’s surpluses, so it was an attractive alternative.
The other project was as large and had as many problems as the African project. That was to pave the Silk Road, which really wasn’t a road but a track with many detours. We wouldn’t even use the current path, rather the one started with the series of airports to get to China.
One advantage of doing this it would provide a gateway to India. We would only have to have a route through or around the Himalayas.
The Silk Road should be more properly be called the Silk Network. It was an intricate web of land and sea routes connecting all of Asia as well as East Africa and Southern Europe.
The network was highly decentralized, with sparce security. There were constant threats of banditry and nomadic raiders, along with expanses of inhospitable terrain. Few individuals traveled the entire length of the Silk Road, instead relying on a succession of middlemen based at various stopping points along the way.
In addition to goods, the network facilitated an unprecedented exchange of religious, philosophical, and scientific thought, much of which was adopted by societies along the way.
One downside was that a wide variety of people used the routes. Diseases such as plague also spread along the Silk Road. This wouldn’t be the problem as unlike my time we had the medical knowledge to stop the Black Death.
I finally gave approval to start improving the Silk Road network to where we could go into India. The route would start at Constantinople go through Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We would make no attempt to conquer Afghanistan. The Russians, British, and Americans proved the mountainous region was an impregnable fortress. We would bypass the mountains through the Kyber Pass and ignore the Afghans. They would try raiding our convoys but would soon learn there was no profit in it.
We would take the town of Lanḍī Kōtal which controlled the pass. We would create concrete forts at each entrance to the pass. These would be built to survive modern cannons, which no one else even had.
From Afghanistan our road would continue to Tajikistan ending there before crossing into China. This project would take ten or more years and then there would be moving the materials needed to invade China. It would probably take the rest of my life or more.
After a long staff meeting I made the decision to proceed with the Silk Road project. Africa wasn’t that developed yet. Without the transportation system it wouldn’t develop quickly. Until we had an educated workforce to build not only the transportation system but businesses there was no sense in starting the project.
Instead our efforts in Africa would be negotiating treaties to provide education, and improved living conditions. This would take seventeen years once the first children started school.
The advantage to extending the Silk Road infrastructure was that it set us up to go into India and later to China.
That decision being made I turned my attention to our helicopter project. Our attempts to build a helicopter were suffering one problem after another. We had a series of rotor system malfunctions.
Helicopters rely on two main rotor systems: the main rotor, which provides lift, and the tail rotor, which stabilizes the aircraft. If either fails, the pilot can lose control, leading to a crash.
We were having main rotor blade fractures causing rotor detachment causing immediate loss of lift. The same probable occurred with tail rotor failure which led to uncontrollable spinning.
There were hydraulic system failures affecting rotor blade movement.
Then there were one off rotor system malfunctions caused by fatigue cracks, manufacturing defects, or improper maintenance.
That was the rotor system. There were also transmission and gearbox failures.
A helicopter’s transmission system transfers power from the engine to the rotors. If the gearbox fails, the helicopter may experience sudden power loss or uncontrollable movements.
Warning signs of transmission failure often include unusual vibrations or noises before takeoff; leaking hydraulic fluid; metal shavings in the transmission oil
When these warning signs were ignored or missed during inspections, tragic accidents occurred.
The problems kept piling up. I had been withdrawing from R&D projects as time went by. I had a worldwide government to run. I would rather have stayed with the engineers, but I had chosen my course and had to stick with it.
The helicopter situation was so bad I had to forgo governing and investigate what was happening.
The first thing I saw at the helicopter R&D center was a huge circular gage built of steal netting.
“What on earth is that”
“That is where we test rotors, the steel netting is catch parts if a rotor separates or eats itself.”
“Has that happened?”
“Oh yes, before we had it in place we had a rotor separate from the main body. It flew half a mile through the air and crashed into a house.”
“Was anybody hurt?”
“No, but it was the project managers house, and it landed in the kitchen while his wife was making dinner.”
I shouldn’t have but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.
“I can see why you built the safety cage.”
“Word is that the project manager led a miserable life until it was completed.”
Chapter 5
The helicopter team was waiting for me in a large conference room. There were forty-two people present. The first thing I noticed was there wasn’t any coffee service or snacks available.
From the nervous vibe of the room the staff must have thought I was there to fire them. That wasn’t the case at all.
“Where is the coffee?”
The team leader looked panicked for a minute but responded quickly, “I’ll have it set up your Grace.”
“Can the your Grace bit, this is a working meeting, and I can’t work without coffee, and a donut would go well also.”
That broke a lot of the ice in the room. Ties were loosened and chairs selected. It was interesting that in every meeting I had ever attended if a person was in a conference room they had previously used they always choose the same seat. It was fun to watch the dance when there was a meeting between two groups who had the same chairs in mind.
“Am I correct in thinking that you have gone over every failure and looked for commonalities such as multiple defective parts from the same supplier.”
One of the lead engineers replied, “Yes sir. We have done that. We even found a common cause in rotor failures. When we went to that supplier their records and tests were all in order. We don’t know why the stress fractures occurred. The heat treat records show that the correct temperatures were reached and held for the correct time. We are at a loss.”
“How many test helicopters do we have right now.”
“Five plus all the required spare parts.”
“I want those helicopters disassembled down to the individual parts, that means to each nut, bolt and screw. Once they are disassembled the parts are to be measured for all specifications. If the parts meet all requirements they are to be identified and bagged then returned to inventory.”
“Those parts that don’t meet the original specs are to be identified and kept separately.”
“When you say broken down to each individual part is that only the helicopter mainframe.”
“I mean every individual part on that machine. Radios broken down to their components. Seat covers removed and measured. Check the thickness of the paint on every separate serface on the machine. Also do the same with all the spare parts.
“We don’t have the space, table space that is to tear it down like that.”
“Then make the space.”
I was a little terse with that reply.
“Yes Sir.”
“Have it done in one week, I will be back.”
I wasn’t going to fire the team. I was going to work their butts off.
What they didn’t know was that I was part of an audit team of an army helicopter repair and rebuild facility in Corpus Christi, Texas a lifetime ago. I still remembered the highlights of that audit. It was educational. I kicked myself for not using their methods when I started this project.
Corpus Christ was a repair depot. At that time helicopters were being returned from Iraq that needed depot level repairs. The helicopters had to be handled carefully. They were returned straight from their immediate evaluation after a tough flight. There would be blood on the upholstery, bullet holes, even the weapons would still be loaded. One even returned with Hellfire missiles attached.
Instead of cleaning them up and repairing what damage they could find, they tore the helicopter down to all of its component parts. These were measured to meet original specifications. Those that didn’t meet were trashed or returned under warranty.
It cost the army nine million dollars to do this. Buying a new machine in the same condition was over twenty million plus they would be sending a like new machine back to the field rather than a patch job.
This was how we would handle all aircraft depot level repairs in the future.
While I was explaining this to the whirlybird team one of their maintenance mechanics knocked on the door and asked for permission to enter. The team lead looked at me and I nodded yes.
“Sirs, I have a question. This order we have been given requires us to make certain that all parts meet the full specifications. The rotor hubs require x-raying to ensure that there are no internal stress cracks.”
That puzzled me.
“Well go ahead and x-ray them.”
“We don’t have a working x-ray machine; we haven’t had one since early days on this project.”
You could see everyone in the room lean away from the team lead.
Looking him the eye, “Explain.”
“These machines are expensive, and it couldn’t be repaired. There is a request for the money to replace it in our next budget cycle.”
“Then how do you know the rotor hubs are stress crack free?”
I was proud of myself for keeping my voice dead level.
“The manufacturer sends us copies of his x-rays.”
“I see, how long have we been doing business with this company?”
“Since inception of the project five years ago. They have been very supportive; Owen took over last year when his father died and we haven’t missed a beat.”
“When was the last audit of their facility.”
One of the team members spoke up, “I was on the last audit three years ago.”
“They are a critical supplier, why aren’t they audited every years according to policy,”
The team lead spoke up, “We never have had a problem with them, and these audits are expensive.”
That was the last straw. “You’re fired, guards escort him from the building and his effects to be shipped later.”
One of my security detail took the team leader by his arm and led him from the room.
His parting words were, “You can’t do this Owen promised me there would be no problems.”
I turned to the room.
“Who is the manufacturer of these rotor hubs.”
“Thompkins Metal and they have Thompkins Heat Treating do that step in the process.”
“Who is in charge of purchasing.”
I told the guy who raised his hand,
“Get the necessary x-ray equipment here as soon as possible, pay a premium if needed.”
“Now where is this Tompkins company located?”
“They are in the industrial park just outside of our gates.”
“Okay, I want all quality and engineering personnel to accompany me.”
I turned to my escort, “We will need more people.”
“They will meet us at the gate Sir.”
“Good.”
I told the helicopter team members to accompany me, “You have five minutes to pull all your audit check sheets and be ready to go.”
To my head escort, “I was hasty in sending the team lead away. We need to hold him so he can’t let the Tompkins people know we are coming.”
“Ahead of you, boss, he is confined to his office with his phone disconnected.”
“Give yourself a raise.”
“Gladly, fifty percent okay?”
“Smart ass, five percent.”
“Thanks.”
By this time the team was reassembling. We proceeded to the gate where a ten-man security team had just arrived. Well a ten-person team as two of them were women.
It took longer to get in and out of our vehicles than to drive to the Thompkins plant.
At their front gate the guard tried to deny us entry. My security people just brushed by him. He stood there looking like he wanted to shoot someone. Fortunately for him he wasn’t armed.
He finally noticed me when I walked by. I winked at him in passing. He stood back and was no longer a problem.
At the front reception desk the receptionist just sat there with an open mouth.
I asked her, “Who is in charge here?”
“Owen Thompkins but I can’t let you in without an appointment.”
I told one of my security to watch her. We proceeded as a group through the door to the factory offices.
There was a young man passing so I asked him where Owen Thompkins office was. He pointed to a nearby door and kept moving. I don’t think he had any idea what was going on.
The door to Owen Thompkins office was opened so I walked in followed by two of my guards.
At first look Thompkins looked like the all-Cornish kid next door. Dark hair, medium build, may be five foot six which was above average for this time period.
When he looked up from the memo he was reading it took him a few seconds to put together what he was facing.
He stood up and stuttered, “What do I owe this honor for, your Grace.”
“We are doing a surprise quality audit of your shop.”
He didn’t react as a guilty person. As matter of fact he seemed relieved to hear this.
“Certainly, your Grace. I must say I’m surprised that you are leading an audit team, but you’re welcome to do as you wish.”
Definitely not worried about what we would find.
I signaled the quality manager to start his audit. After that I asked for a cup of coffee and spent the next two hours talking to Mr. Thompkins about his operation. He had taken it over from his father as I had been told. The company was in good financial shape then, and better now. I took this with trust. Trust and verify.
In the two hours I learned about his family and children. They appeared to live a upper middle-class life which was appropriate for his position.
After an hour and a half one of my guards came in with a file. It contained a quick background check on the Thompkins family. They seemed to be as he had represented. I was glad of this. This kid seemed too clean to be involved in corruption.
“You told my team lead not to worry.”
“I did, I had to lead him by hand on everything. Frankly he isn’t competent.”
“I agree.”
“Why are we having cracked rotor hubs while your x-rays are clean.”
“Oh we send a copy of the baseline x-rays taken five years ago with every shipment.”
“You haven’t been doing x-rays?”
“No we are following the Mil Std 105 sampling plan that was introduced. We only have to take an x-ray every two hundred parts and we have only shipped thirty or so rotor hubs so far.”
“Those hubs are critical parts why do you think you didn’t have to x-ray each one.”
“Your man wrote a memo telling us to go to that plan as x-raying each part took too long and was slowing them down.”
He looked in a file and pulled out the letter which matched his statement.
“I gather that was the wrong thing to do.”
“Yes it was, this explains why the cracks weren’t found. We still don’t know what was causing them.”
“Wouldn’t your incoming x-rays caught this?”
It was my turn to be uncomfortable. I explained what was going on at my end.
“So when we made defective rotor hubs there was nothing in the system to catch them?”
I liked this kid more and more; He didn’t try to deflect from his responsibilities. Most of the sin lay with my people.
About that time my head quality guy knocked on the open door frame.
“Boss these people are squeaky clean. All their paperwork is in order and all tests documented and passed. Failures are isolated and either repaired or scrapped. I wish all our vendors were this good.”
I turned to Owen, “Tomorrow we will go to your heat-treating facility.”
The next morning Owen was waiting for us in his lobby.
“I think I know what happened. We spent most of the night going through the heat treat process and everything looked good.”
“Then what was the problem?”
“Before quenching parts have to be preheated or they will fracture if the internal temp drops too quickly.”
“Our records show that the preheat temperature was at the correct point. This couldn’t be true as parts have been cracking.”
“We did a rough check on the calibration of the preheat temperature control. The heater control passed the calibration check. That only left the calibration standard itself to be off.”
“I had the calibration company open its doors last night. We are one of its largest customers so though the owner grumbled he met us at his place.
There we found that the calibration standard was only checked annually and that for last two years it had been drifting. The individual readings were in tolerance but when you calculated the three standard deviations it was very possible that the standard was reporting a higher temperature than what was being reported.
At that point I threw up my hands and told our quality manager to sort all this out. All rotor hubs were to be checked and found to be crack free or discarded.
Chapter 6
Even though it would be five or more years before we would go into India the CIA was establishing a network of spies. It was very frustrating for them as the political scene was changing. They would no sooner get a spy established in a leader’s house then the leader would be overthrown. Usually the local agent was killed in the fighting or soon after as the victor killed all fighting age men left.
I told them to hold off going into China any more than they already had. It would be ten or more years before we would try them, and Chinese politics were always in transition. That didn’t even account for the Mongol’s to the north of them.
They had people on the periphery of the Chinese emperor’s court to try to keep track of who was really in charge. Unless the Chinese tried something we would just watch the developments as they occurred.
While Poland’s infrastructure was being updated and men and materials were being moved into position my family and I spent the rest of the winter in Florida.
Events in Poland were going well as they were having a drier than usual winter. With the progress being made we would be ready to move on Old Prussia as soon as we thought spring had arrived.
Our winter in Florida was nice. There were cold days that required a coat, even some nasty rainy days where we had to stay in, but on the whole it was sunshine most days. We weren’t going to the beach and roasting in the sun people so the weather didn’t bother us much.
I was able to play golf three times a week. I would have played every day, but Eleanor would give me a side eyed look when I tried to up the frequency. Instead we went horseback riding many days.
We played board games most evenings when we weren’t entertaining. Indian chiefs, mayors, governors, and visiting nobility would send their cards that they were in the area. In turn we held a weekly entertainment every Saturday. It was more like an open barbeque.
Often I was asked if I knew of any land for sale near me. My public answer was, “No, it is all tied up for the rocket facility.”
The real answer was, “I own all of this and don’t want company, no insult to you, I just don’t want any neighbors.”
Our living quarters were very different from those in Owen-nap. Owen-nap was a fortress castle that had been modernized as much as possible. It still was a grim looking pile of stone which let the damp and cold in during the winter, while being boiling hot in the summer.
Our Florida home was a mansion rather than a fortress. A huge wall surrounded the grounds about half a mile from our house. With the oak trees in the way we couldn’t even see the wall.
The wall was our primary defense. It was under constant human surveillance, both in person and hidden cameras. There were sensors in the ground on both sides of the wall.
There was an artillery park with several hundred cannon with the troops to support them. There were tanks and enough trucks to haul a division.
This was the wall defense. There were also patrols outside of the wall. No one could get within five miles of the wall without being known. This didn’t count the alligators that lived in the surrounding ponds. The locals called us Fort Alligator.
Our airfield was located outside of the walls but only two miles aways. It was a fifteen-thousand-foot concrete runway that would be able to handle our aircraft and any built in the future. The engineers thought I was overdoing it but when I described a 747 they shut up.
I also had plans for our version of the Concorde but kept that to myself until we developed the materials and computers needed.
My plane was kept in a special hanger that could withstand a full-scale assault. To get the hanger in the early days before hundreds of people were brought into the area I had a trench dug from the mansion’s future site to the planned hanger site. The trench had to allow water drainage as the water table was close to the serface. Concrete was poured and an enclosed tunnel was constructed. Hidden piping and pumps kept moving water away from our escape route.
The tunnel was wide and tall enough for golf carts which would take us from house to hanger. When it came to my family’s safety cost wasn’t an issue. I had lost track of the number of attempts that had been made on my life. That was with a ninety percent approval rating. I shutters to think of a thirty five percent rating that many American presidents had achieved.
There was a permanent encampment of one thousand soldiers. Units were rotated in and out on a monthly basis. We held a party for the soldiers every month so each of the men and women rotating through were able to meet me and my family.
The units brought in were the outstanding units in various exercises. There were navy and air force units present for the same reasons, but they had limited guard duty. This created some tension, but this was relived by interservice games.
I watched every Sunday. They were as brutal as any games I have ever seen. The NHL looked like a toddler’s picnic compared to some of the hits that were made. Not that they played hockey. This was soccer with little if any padding.
I doubted ice hockey would ever be played in Florida. Economics would be against it. We had the ability to build an indoor hockey rink but there wasn’t enough population to support it. Maybe in a hundred years or so.
We loved our little sixteen-bedroom mansion. Altogether there were thirty rooms not counting servant’s quarters. There were buildings such as stables and barns. We had a full blacksmith setup to shoe the horses and a small veterinary hospital.
There was a not so small human hospital for us and our staff. I also funded a local hospital for the growing town of Cape Canaveral.
It didn’t take much conversation with Eleanor to realize that she would love a house like this in Cornwall. A mansion instead of a fortress. I thought about it and decided to give her what she wanted without asking her. It would be a surprise.
Outside of Owen-nap I owned several large tracts of land. Using the wall defense we could have a house similar to that in Florida. I had the architect who had designed the Florida house flown in secretly from Cornwall. He was kept secret by not listing him on the flight manifest and having him stay in a house next to the airport. I would meet him there and we would discuss what the house would look like.